Kiernan - Third and Fourth Day

 

Missy - Goodbye Segovia Hello Sariria

 

Today we left Segovia. 

I had a rough nights sleep because of a choir of drunken Spaniards outside our window until the wee hours. Also there was brass, might have been a trombone.

David asked if we were now in New Orleans. It was quite something. 

Poor Kiernan got a headache followed by nausea from it all. 

Regardless I got up bright and early and set off to walk around the town with mom. Our plan was to get some breakfast then go to the Alcazar. 

It was not to be. Bright and early is not a time that Spanish people eat or serve breakfast. 

So we walked. 

What a gorgeous place. 

After a good walk some cafes opened and we sat down at a table in the plaza mayor and got a lovely breakfast. I was delighted to find they served avocado toast. 

It had soft Burgos cheese on it plus walnuts plus honey. I like ours better with salt and lemon juice but this was still fun to try. 

Michelle and Chris joined us se we all got to try little bits of different things. 

Then we went to rest. After maybe an hour of laying down and staring at the ceiling we packed up to check out. 

Moms got a ton of stuff to lug around so we saw her off in a taxi straight from the plaza. 

The rest of us wandered around Segovia for another hour to get in a few more sights. 

Quite by chance we came across this devil statue. 

He is holding a phone that says I ❤️ Segovia on the back and he is taking a selfie with the aqueduct behind him. 

Kiernan set his phone on top of it and took a selfie with him. 

There is a legend that says that it wasn’t the Romans who build the aqueduct but a devil instead. 

The legend says a water carrier girl was so sick of lugging her water up and down these hills that she traded her soul to the devil in exchange for the aqueduct. 

She felt so guilty afterwards and so worried about her soul that she spent her time in constant prayer. 

She was saved by the devil being unable to complete the work intime due to a storm. 

The villagers forgave her and sprinkled the whole thing with holy water and called it a good deal. 

You can see here that he is still carrying his last stone. 

Apparently there was some protest of this statue in 2019 because the devil is too jolly. 

The weather was beautiful and hot and we went down and got milkshakes. 

I got a coffee shake and Kiernan got one called grandmothers cake. 

He says it tasted like if pop tarts were good. 

Make of that what you will.

Then we took a cab to the train station and got in the train for our 4 hour ride to Sarria and the start of the Camino. 

Everything was going well until hour 3 when at a stop nowhere near Sarria all the people with backpacks got up and left. 

Michelle texted me from another car to say that someone told her there was track construction and that we would be transferred to a bus for the remainder of the trip. 

We told some British ladies sitting near us and we grabbed our gear and disembarked. 

We hoped we were doing the right thing and we all tried to just go with the flow. 

It was nerve wracking but we did pretty well. 

Our bus driver thought he was playing Mario Kart. We were pulling some G’s and sliding into each other up and down mountains. A guy behind us got real car sick and a little boy in front of us was clinging to his sister and a Korean lady across looked like she thought she was about to die. 

Then it started raining. 

I am happy to say he slowed down when that happened. 

 This must be said for the man. He got us to Sarria very nearly when the train would have. 

It was only drizzling when we got off the bus. 

We made it to our apartment (with washing machine!) in only a few minutes. 

There are 4 bedrooms here and a kitchen. Tonight no drunk opera, as Kiernan put it. 

We went grocery shopping and mom made a big batch of ratatouille. 

As it’s still pretty wet and rainy we’ve covered all the surfaces in wet (but clean) clothes and are hoping they will be dry enough tomorrow. 

Now it’s 10 pm and I’m chilling and looking at pictures.  

It was a big day. We had lots of challenges but I think we did really well with them. We kept level heads and good spirits and landed on our feet. 

So far so good. 

Missy - To Segovia

One of the organizing forces of this trip has been “But when are we ever going to be in Spain again?”.

Originally, as the name of this blog suggests, this trip was all about, and only about, doing the Camino De Santiago. That was my deal. It is a pilgrimage or a hike, depending on who you are,  to the city of Santiago de Compestella on the far west coast of Spain. Santiago is the traditionally cited burial place of St. James the apostle. In the Middle Ages it was used as the carrot and stick for pushing the Moors out of Spain. At that time one of the titles for Saint James was the Moor killer. It was pretty political and of course very religious. 

You could get assigned the pilgrimage by a court for particularly heinous crimes or you could assign it to yourself to get absolution for big sin like murder. You could even, if you were rich enough,  outsource it to someone with more time to walk a long way.  Your sponsorship earned you quite a lot but not as much as if you did it yourself , especially in terms of street cred. 

Because I am super into history and because I am religious and because of an abortive attempt at the Appalachian trail in the 90s I wanted to try this Camino myself. 

I am in bed now in Segovia having just eaten a massive tapas and extras meal for a very reasonable price because mom wanted to see Segovia. Yesterday I was in Burgos walking through one of the most beautiful cathedrals in the world because Michelle wanted to see Burgos. 

I am so glad that we have done these things. My life is richer for their influence. 

This morning we packed up and left the Burgos apartment. I loved that place. It was peaceful and quiet and safe. It had great light and a hand grocery store and enough rooms for privacy. 

Michelle and I both felt we could happily have moved there and just stayed. 

Instead our wonderful hostess called us a cab and we went to the train station and rode into Segovia. 

Today we split up a lot. We sat apart on the train. 

We took different cabs to different places once we arrived.  Then we wound up eating separately. 

We crossed paths checking into the hostle then split up again for site seeing. 

After my sugar plus chai caffeine rush of yesterday I opted for a much more suitable green tea and lemon muffin sort of thing today. 

I have a small Camino pin on my hat and an Australian pilgrim noticed it and struck up a conversation with us as we ate. She’s done this every year or thereabouts for the last 15 years. 

We browsed more confectionery and dropped our stuff in the hostle and went off to explore. 

It was sunny and hot and there were little alleyways and narrow golden stone lined streets everywhere. 

It felt much more touristy than Burgos. 

We heard so many different languages and smelled so many wonderful foods. 

Traveling down the hill from the cathedral we passed a bustling shopping district and came around a bend to see this aqueduct. 

This is the reason that mom wanted to come. 

It’s a first century Roman creation. The stones are without mortar. 

It is massive and incredible. 

Please read about it here

I am a child and had determined to touch it if it wasn’t roped off. 

I was ridiculously pleased with myself here. 

Then we went and got some vegetarian tapas. 

This turned out to be a plate of cheese with little baguette shaped crackers. 

Ha

I told the lady at the bar I was vegetarian and she made a noise somewhere between fed up and desperate. Then she got a determined look on her face and said “Si! Queso.”

Afterwards went to the Segovia cathedral. 

It was full of brutal bloody Christianity. It was crucifixion and martyrdom in lots of gory detail. 

Mom was going to light a candle for her parents. All the candles were LEDs. She put in a 2 euro coin and about 50% of them lighted up. She says she’s now saved her entire family from purgatory 

It was pretty funny. 

Just as we were rounding the inner courtyard the skies opened up. 

I was so pleased to be under cover. We went into the basement gallery and thunder rumbled above. 

The paintings, many from the 1500s, were so vibrant. 

I love the relatable parent child interaction here of baby wanting moms food and mom giving some heartfelt side eye. 

Look at these massive hymnals. Zoom in to see an early form of music notation. 

It stopped raining and got quite chilly. Mom bought a shawl. 

It started raining again as we were about to meet up with the gang for dinner so we dove into an intriguing candy shop. 

We found that dinner wouldn’t be served until much later (8 as it turned out) so we went back to the hostal to rest for a bit. 

Then it was out again in search of patatas bravas. 

Look at this beautiful door (also my sweet boy who likes Segovia much better than Burgos). 

We made it to tapas at last. 

We shared a ton of Spanish food: castle soup? and  gazpacho and local cheeses and patatas bravas with 3 sauces and salad and Serrano ham and sangria. I told the waiter I was vegetarian and he said I should try the grilled veggie platter ( it was great) and there were some regular meal things too. 

We ate till we were stuffed and waddled back to the hostel at 9:30 or so. 

There is a bar across the street and they are singing with great enthusiasm just outside my understanding. 

 

Kiernan - Second Day

 

Missy - Burgos Cathedral and castle

Today we did the super tourist thing and went to the Burgos cathedral. 

It was incredible. 

The jet lag was quite a bit nicer to us today collectively. I got up at 4:30 and did stuff online then napped until 6. I got Kiernan up and out at 7:30 to pick up some coffee and pasteries and to as he later described it “Do a Spanish”. Which is to say I interacted with non English speakers successfully. 

We: walked under trees by a river,

got coffee and chai to warm our hands. It was in the mid 50s and wet,

saw a pigeon on the head of a man on the heads of men,

stopped to smell the roses, 

and found my new favorite pastry.

This is a braid with orange and chocolate. 

I got lots of different pastries just to be sure that one was my favorite though. 

After breakfast everyone but Kiernan went to the cathedral. 

I have about 75 photos and if you want to see them please let me know. Here are a very few. 

In addition to volunteering to show you lots of pictures I am also offering to tell you all the things I remember from the excellent audio tour they have. 

I got my first pilgrim stamp here as well. 

After that we went back to the apartment and started laundry, went grocery shopping and made a great lunch. 

My next plan was to go to the human evolution museum. There are caves nearby where the oldest human remains ever discovered were located. Unfortunately they are closed Monday. 

Since Kiernan hadn’t come to the cathedral I was hoping to take him somewhere cool. 

I’d been seeing signs for the Burgos castle and despite the lowering sky I headed out that way with everyone but Chris in tow. 

By the time we got most of the way up we could see both rain and lightning. Hearing thunder made me very much hope the castle was an indoor sort of affair. 

Sadly it was more of a self guided outdoor ruin with cat walks. 

I probably should have taken the hint from the cat nestled in under one of the storage buildings. 

It started raining with enthusiasm just as we were rounding the walkways end. 

We scrambled for cover from lightning and rain and stuffed ourselves into some wooden outhouse looking things 

I am pleased to report they were not outhouses 

When the squall passed we started back down only to rediscover the age old truth: wet stone is slippery. 

We inched our way back to city level and got hit again by the next rain. 

Wonderfully Chis who stayed behind brought in our laundry.

Thank you Chris!

We found an old monastery looking portico to hide under and chatted and watched birds and rain and talked about our adventure. 

Then it was home for leftover soup featuring beans in Burgos at my daughters insistence from home. 

And some, I kid you not, small breast cheese. This is a specialty of Galaica. 

  

After dinner a quiet phone staring relaxation was had by all. 

So far so good.